(a) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a cap mechanism for covering the ink jet head employed by the printer of the ink jet type.
(b) Prior Art
The printer of the ink jet type carries out its printing, jetting ink onto a sheet of paper through nozzles arranged on the front face of the ink jet head and when the ink jet head is left unused for a long time after the printing is finished, the ink remaining in the nozzles sets to clog the nozzles, so that the direction in which ink should be jetted through the nozzles cannot be fixed and that the amount of ink to be jetted cannot be kept certain at a next printing process, thereby causing the quality of printing to become worse. Ink may not be jetted through the nozzles in the worst case.
In order to eliminate this drawback, the cap member provided with the fixture which was fitted onto the nozzles and communicated with the suction pump was proposed to cover the ink jet head. When the ink jet head was covered by the cap member and the suction pump was driven, the ink remaining in the nozzles was sucked and removed through the fixture of the cap member.
However, the covering of the cap member relative to the ink jet head and the driving of the suction pump were carried out by hands, thereby causing this operation to be troublesome. When this operation was neglected, however, the nozzles could not be prevented from being clogged by the ink remaining in the nozzles. Further, when the fixture of the cap member was loosely fitted onto the nozzles upon covering the ink jet head with the cap member by hands, the ink in the nozzles could not be sucked and removed completely, while when it was too-closely fitted onto the nozzles, the nozzles were sometimes damaged.